First Edition: September 12, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Doctor To The Stars Disciplined Over Use Of Controversial Menopause Therapy
A Santa Monica doctor who touted a controversial menopause therapy on the Oprah Winfrey Network and received testimonials for her work from such celebrity patients as model Cindy Crawford and actress-author Suzanne Somers has been disciplined by California’s medical board for gross negligence. In a settlement approved late last month, the Medical Board of California put Dr. Prudence Hall on probation for four years, faulting her for being “unaware” of potential risks posed by the plant-based hormones — including cancer — and failing to monitor her patients properly. (Feder Ostrov, 9/12)
The Wall Street Journal:
Nearly 600 Russia-Linked Accounts Tweeted About The Health Law
On the March 23 anniversary of the Affordable Care Act becoming law, Democrats attacked Republicans for trying to sabotage the health law and praised the embattled legislation. So did Russian trolls. “8 years ago today, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law. Millions of Americans have gained access to health care. Thank you, Mr. President!” said a tweet linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian company engaged in an online influence campaign that typically seeks to pit one side against the other on controversial issues. (Armour and Overberg, 9/12)
The Hill:
CBO: House GOP Bill Delaying Key Parts Of ObamaCare Will Cost Over $50 Billion
House GOP legislation that would delay or repeal certain parts of ObamaCare will cost $51.6 billion over the next decade, according to a new government analysis. The report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released Tuesday comes as the House plans to vote on the legislation later this week. (Weixel, 9/11)
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Obama Doesn't Always Tell The Straight Story
Former President Barack Obama's recent denunciation of President Donald Trump's treatment of the press overlooks the aggressive steps the Justice Department took to keep information from the public during his administration. Obama also made a problematic claim that Republican "sabotage" has cost 3 million people their health insurance. With his return to the political donnybrook on behalf of Democrats in the November elections, Obama has brought a once-familiar style back into the discourse. It's measured, nuanced and distinct from the torrent of misstatements from Trump. That doesn't mean Obama always tells the story straight. (Woodward and Rugaber, 9/12)
The New York Times:
Interest Groups Turn Up Pressure On Senators Before Kavanaugh Vote
Pressure is intensifying on undecided senators before a vote to confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, with one senator — Susan Collins, Republican of Maine — reporting that she and her staff have been targeted with a barrage of calls, including some using vulgar language and threats to push her to vote against Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh. With last week’s confirmation hearings behind them, interest groups and advocates are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising to target both Ms. Collins and another undecided Republican who supports abortion rights: Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Also in the cross hairs are three vulnerable Democrats running for re-election in states won by President Trump. (Stolberg, Fandos and Edmondson, 9/11)
Politico:
The Last-Ditch Effort To Stop Kavanaugh
Brett Kavanaugh avoided glaring missteps — and most tough Democratic questions — at his confirmation hearings. But that’s not stopping the Supreme Court nominee’s liberal critics from unleashing new ads and grass-roots campaigns in one last shot at derailing him. (Schor and Everett, 9/11)
Politico:
What We Don’t Know About Bernie’s Favorite Healthcare Idea
Since Bernie Sanders made “Medicare-for-all” a central plank of his wildfire presidential campaign, support for a once-fringe idea has exploded. Democratic senators with eyes on the 2020 presidential contest – including Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris – have conspicuously lined up as co-sponsors of the “Medicare-for-all” legislation that Sanders introduced last year; a similar proposal in the House has 123 co-sponsors. All of those politicians are Democrats, but among voters, support appears to cross the aisle: A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that “Medicare-for-all” was supported by 70 percent of American adults, including a slight majority of Republicans. (Demko, 9/12)
The Hill:
Drug Company CEO Calls 400 Percent Price Hike 'Moral Requirement'
Mulye said the branded version of the drug increased in price to $2,800. “The point here is the only other choice is the brand at the higher price. It is still a saving regardless of whether it is a big one or not,” he said. Mulye also defended Martin Shkreli, the disgraced pharma CEO who faced national criticism, including outcries from members of Congress, after he increased the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent. (Hellmann, 9/11)
Stat:
Nostrum CEO Hiked Drug's Price By 400 Percent, And Officials Can’t Do Much
The bold words from both sides illustrate just how little has changed in the debate over drug prices, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to scare drug makers away from hiking their prices. “We’ve seen that public shaming doesn’t work. It didn’t work for Daraprim. It didn’t work for EpiPen. It’s not a long term solution for our drug pricing problem,” Rachel Sachs, associate professor of law at Washington University, said. (Swetlitz and Florko, 9/11)
Stat:
What’s In The Senate’s Opioid Package — And What's Not
The Senate will vote this week on a bill to prevent illicit fentanyl trafficking, account for drug diversion in opioid manufacturing quotas, and improve access to addiction treatments via telemedicine. Many senators, soon to campaign for re-election in states hard-hit by the epidemic, say the bill is enough. Many advocates for better addiction treatment beg to differ. (Facher, 9/12)
Bloomberg:
Purdue Pharma Is Offering Free Opioid Treatment In Legal Talks
The company that created OxyContin is offering free doses of an opioid-abuse treatment as part of its offer to resolve more than 1,000 lawsuits accusing the drugmaker of helping fuel the opioid crisis, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Purdue Pharma has repeatedly said it will give away doses of a new version of buprenorphine -- which helps wean people addicted to opioids off the drugs -- as part of any settlement, according to four people familiar with the talks sponsored by state attorneys general and a federal judge. They asked not to be cited by name as the negotiations are confidential. (Hopkins and Feeley, 9/11)
NPR:
'Recovery Houses' Often Won't Let Residents Use Methadone
Cristina Rivell has been struggling with an opioid addiction since she was a teenager — going in and out of rehab for five years. The most recent time, her doctor prescribed her a low dose of buprenorphine (often known by its brand name, Suboxone), a drug that helps curb cravings for stronger opioids and prevents the symptoms of withdrawal. (Feldman, 9/12)
The Associated Press:
Officials Report Record Number Of Overdose Deaths In August
Delaware public health officials are reporting a record number of deaths from suspected drug overdoses in August. Officials said Tuesday that the 39 deaths reported last month is the highest since they began tracking deaths from suspected overdoses in late 2013. The previous monthly high was 27 deaths in April. Officials suspect many of the overdoses involved fentanyl, a highly toxic synthetic opioid far more potent than heroin. (9/11)
The Associated Press:
LePage Says He’ll Deny Applicants Until Medicaid Expansion Is Funded
Republican Gov. Paul LePage said he’ll continue denying applications under a voter-approved Medicaid expansion until lawmakers provide funding under his terms. Pro-Medicaid expansion advocates who are suing to force Maine to roll-out voter-approved Medicaid expansion have encouraged Mainers to apply for Medicaid expansion this summer. But LePage said the plan is to deny those applications “until they’re funded.” (Villeneuve, 9/10)
The Associated Press:
Government To Expand, Extend Texas Tent Shelter For Children
The U.S. government will expand its tent shelter for immigrant minors crossing the southwest border to 3,800 beds and keep it open through the end of this year, an agency spokesman said Tuesday. The facility at Tornillo, Texas, which originally opened with a 360-bed capacity for 30 days, is being expanded based on how many children are in the care of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, agency spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said in a statement. (9/11)
The New York Times:
Worker At Arizona Center For Migrant Children Is Convicted Of Sexual Abuse
A youth care worker at an Arizona shelter for migrant children has been convicted of sexually abusing teenagers who were under his supervision, federal prosecutors said on Monday. After a seven-day trial, the worker, Levian D. Pacheco, 25, of Phoenix, was convicted on Friday by a jury in United States District Court of seven counts of abusive sexual contact and three counts of sexual abuse of minors, the prosecutors said in a statement. He will be sentenced on Dec. 3. (Hauser, 9/11)
The New York Times:
A Horrific Crime On The Subway Led To Kendra’s Law. Years Later, Has It Helped?
Nearly two decades ago, in a Manhattan subway station, a mentally ill man shoved Kendra Webdale, a promising young writer, to her death in front of an oncoming N train. It was a horrific crime that shocked the city and the nation, highlighting deep flaws in the care of seriously mentally ill people and spurring a wave of state laws that use court orders to move them into outpatient treatment. Last week, the man who killed Ms. Webdale, Andrew Goldstein, now 49, who has had schizophrenia since his youth, walked out of prison and into a mental health system that has been heavily influenced by his crime. (Watkins, 9/11)
The New York Times:
It’s Not Just You: 2017 Was Rough For Humanity, Study Finds
Violence, bitter partisanship, an uncertain future. These are dark times. In fact, humanity just had its gloomiest year in more than a decade, according to a new survey of the emotional lives of more than 154,000 people around the world. More people reported negative experiences, defined as worry, stress, physical pain, anger or sadness, than at any point since 2005, when Gallup, the analytics and consulting company, introduced the survey. (Chokshi, 9/12)
The New York Times:
Is Whole-Fat Dairy Good For The Heart?
A large new study links whole-fat dairy food consumption to a reduced risk for cardiovascular disease. The findings raise questions about current dietary guidelines, which suggest substituting fat-free or low-fat dairy for full-fat products. The study, published in Lancet, included 136,384 people in 21 countries followed for an average of nine years. (Bakalar, 9/11)
The New York Times:
Sleep Apnea May Increase Risk Of Gout
New research has found that obstructive sleep apnea — a disorder in which breathing stops and starts during sleep — is associated with an increased risk for gout, a common cause of painful arthritis. Scientists studied 15,879 patients with apnea and 63,296 matched controls without, following them for an average of almost six years. Over that time, 4.9 percent of people with apnea developed gout, compared with 2.6 percent of those without the disorder. (Bakalar, 9/11)
NPR:
Barn Owls Help Researchers Understand How The Brain Concentrates
Kids with ADHD are easily distracted. Barn owls are not.So a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore is studying these highly focused predatory birds in an effort to understand the brain circuits that control attention. The team's long-term goal is to figure out what goes wrong in the brains of people with attention problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (Hamilton, 9/11)
NPR:
Bonobos Share Food When Chimps Won't — More Evidence That Bonobos Are 'Pro-Social'
An intriguing study published this week suggests that bonobos, among the closest relatives to humans, are surprisingly willing to hand over food to a pal. But they didn't share tools. The discovery adds a new wrinkle to scientists' efforts to understand the evolutionary origins of people's unusual propensity to help others. (Greenfieldboyce, 9/11)
NPR:
Marijuana Use Increasing Among Older Adults
Members of the generation that came of age in the era of marijuana are reaching for weed in their golden years. A study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence this month suggests that increasing numbers of middle aged and older adults are using marijuana — and using it a lot. The analysis comes from data gathered in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2015 and 2016. About 9 percent of U.S. adults between ages 50 and 64 used marijuana in the the previous year, according to survey results. About 3 percent of people over 65 used the drug in that time period. (Gordon, 9/12)
The Associated Press:
Active Shooter Study: Semi-Automatic Rifles More Deadly
Active shooters with semi-automatic rifles wound and kill twice as many people as those using weapons that don't self-load, although chances of dying if hit in either type of assault are the same, a new analysis shows. Researchers examined FBI data on nearly 250 active shooter incidents in the United States since 2000. Almost 900 people were wounded and 718 were killed. (Tanner, 9/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Shooters Are Twice As Deadly When A Semiautomatic Rifle Is In The Mix, Study Finds
In the United States, shootings that involved a semiautomatic rifle resulted in nearly twice as many deaths compared with shootings carried out with only handguns, shotguns or non-semiautomatic rifles, according to a report published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Nonfatal injuries were significantly higher as well. In other words, the study authors noted, the weapons work exactly as intended. “Semiautomatic rifles are designed for easy use, can accept large magazines, and fire high-velocity bullets, enabling active shooters to wound and kill more people per incident,” they wrote. (Kaplan, 9/11)
The New York Times:
More Than 1,100 School Faucets Still Have Lead, City Says
Lead contamination has been an ongoing crisis in New York City’s public housing, and the Education Department said on Tuesday that it continues to be an issue in schools as well. In a report, the department said that while it has made progress in eliminating lead in schools over the last year, more than 1,100 water fixtures in city school buildings still have lead levels above the 15 parts per billion threshold that the Environmental Protection Agency allows. (Shapiro, 9/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
Nine Percent Of Fixtures That Showed Elevated Lead Still Having Problems In NYC Schools
The city has replaced many fixtures and pipes leading to them as well as taken other steps such as a weekly flushing protocol to prevent a buildup of lead in standing water. The city’s results stem from tests conducted in the 2016-17 school year, and retests in 2017-18, after repair efforts were made, of fixtures that initially showed elevated lead levels. City Department of Education officials said 99% of the roughly 142,000 potential drinking water fixtures in the city’s public schools tested at or below the state action level of 15 parts per billion. (Brody, 9/11)
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
Ad Campaign Thrusts Health Care Into Governor's Race
A Democratic-leaning group has launched an ad campaign against Republican candidate for governor Jeff Johnson, accusing him of pushing policies that would take health care away from people who need it. In a statement, Johnson called the ads “blatant lies intended to cover up the fact that the DFL candidate for governor wants to eliminate private health insurance and force all Minnesotans onto one government program.” It’s in reference to U.S. Rep. Tim Walz’s stated aim to provide a government health plan to all Minnesotans, like seniors currently use under Medicare. (Coolican, 9/11)
The Associated Press:
Law Department: Baltimore Should Pay Fees In Abortion Case
A finance panel will consider a recommendation that Baltimore pay more than $1 million in attorney's fees to a Christian-based health organization that successfully challenged an ordinance requiring pregnancy centers to notify patients if they don't offer abortion or birth control services. The Daily Record reports the city's Board of Estimates will consider the Baltimore Law Department's recommendation Wednesday. (9/11)
The Associated Press:
Woman's Death Raises Concern About Minneapolis Homeless Camp
The death of a woman living at a Minneapolis homeless camp is raising fresh concerns about the health of the rapidly growing number of people staying there. Alissa Rose Skipintheday, 26, was found unconscious and not breathing last week near the camp, which is known by locals as the Wall of Forgotten Natives because it is close to a highway sound wall and is made up primarily of Native Americans. Skipintheday died Saturday at Hennepin County Medical Center, the Star Tribune reported. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office said Tuesday that her death remains under investigation. (9/11)
The Associated Press:
Lawsuit Challenges Maryland State Retirees’ Health Plan Move
A lawsuit is challenging the state of Maryland’s decision to move Medicare eligible retirees to Medicare Part D. Lawmakers say Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh notified them this week about the lawsuit. It was filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court by attorneys for former state employees. Lawmakers had planned a briefing on the transition Thursday, but that has been pulled from the schedule. (9/11)
Los Angeles Times:
UCLA Scientist Shares 2018 Lasker Prize For Figuring Out How Genes Turn On And Off
Michael Grunstein, a longtime professor of biological chemistry at UCLA who uncovered the key role that DNA’s “packing material” plays in turning genes on and off, has won the Albert Lasker award for basic medical research. He shares the prize with Rockefeller University biochemist C. David Allis, who extended Grunstein’s findings on how certain proteins modify gene expression and identified how one such route can lead to childhood cancers. (Healy, 9/11)
Los Angeles Times:
Suspect Arrested After Gunshots Reported At Kaiser Permanente In Downey
A suspect is in custody after police responded to reports of an active shooter at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Downey, authorities said Tuesday. Downey police received a call about 11:34 a.m. reporting a disturbance at the medical center at 9333 Imperial Highway. As officers were en route, the report was updated to shots fired, according to police Chief Carl Charles. (Mejia, Fry and Reyes-Velarde, 9/11)
The Press Democrat:
Broken
Loyalty and devotion held a homeless couple together for nine years, but the relentless struggle for survival on the streets has left them with an uncertain future. (McConahey, 9/10)